


it's all your fault, cheryl

by retroria



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 22:39:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17496722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retroria/pseuds/retroria
Summary: toni is less than happy with cheryl because this isn't what was supposed to happen, they weren't supposed to get kicked off the Serpents.





	it's all your fault, cheryl

**It’s all your fault, Cheryl**

 

Neither of the girls had so much as looked at each other since they had stepped off southside territory, committing themselves to a reserved silence, an opportunity for remaining calm while trying to figure out how they had gotten to their situation in the first place. 

 

Well, it was more like  _ Toni _ hadn’t so much as looked at Cheryl since they had been laid off from their gang duties. 

 

Toni had been eerily quiet ever since Jughead had sealed their fates with a golden egg and a few words. Cheryl could hardly believe the audacity of him… to throw them out for stealing a few things from the rich while he covered up murders with his girlfriend and skinned Penny Peabody alive. 

 

Cheryl had every right to demand that he let them stay on the Serpents, let Cheryl finally find a family and be able to  _ keep  _ them for once. 

 

But she didn’t, because she had too much pride, she didn’t want to stick around in a gang that didn’t want her anymore. 

 

So she stuck her nose up, puffed her chest out, and held tight to the jacket on her back. 

 

Even demanded that Toni be able to keep her own. 

 

_ Toni.  _

 

Cheryl’s hand flexed and tightened on the steering wheel of her red Chevy, turning to look tenderly at Toni… except Toni wasn’t even so much as blinking in Cheryl’s direction. Her eyes were intensely staring down at the green snake embroidered onto the back of her jacket which was now clenched in her fists. 

 

“TT…”

 

“Don’t, Cheryl,” she warned, her voice barely above a whisper but dangerous nonetheless. 

 

Cheryl’s entire soul swooped to the pit of her stomach. 

 

She had never imagined that the very thing which had brought her Toni closer, Cheryl being a serpent, would become the thing which slowly tore them apart. It was palpable, the tension, the inevitable ending of their rosy relationship which hung over their heads like a pendulum, swinging their demise back and forth. 

 

“I didn’t mean for us to lose our position as Serpents,” Cheryl choked out, despite already having been warned to stay quiet. 

 

“Didn’t you though?” Toni growled, her eyes ablaze and coming up off her jacket, tears threatening to fall, tears that Cheryl hadn’t seen in a long time. “I should have never… I should have never let you talk me into stealing the damn egg. I should have never let you leave your call sign on Hiram’s picture.”

 

“Toni it’s not your fault-”

 

“No it’s not,” Toni snapped. “It’s yours. It’s all your fucking fault, Cheryl, that we’re driving back to Thistlehouse and planning how to fill the time in our day where we would be in Serpent meetings, it’s your fault that I don’t have  _ family  _ anymore.”

 

Cheryl’s bottom lip trembled. 

 

Family? She thought… she had really fooled herself into believing that after eight meager months she might have become Toni’s family now. She had really thought. 

 

“I just told Jughead what I thought was right-”

 

“No, Cheryl,” Toni growled, shaking her head harshly. “You  _ didn’t  _ tell Jughead what you thought was right because you weren’t thinking!”

 

“That’s such a lie,” Cheryl bristled, feeling defensive. 

 

“You know what the fucking  _ lie  _ is? You parading around, telling me everyday that the Serpents mean so fucking much to you, because as it turns out, we  _ don’t _ . We never did. You were so quick to turn on them, you didn’t even fight for it, you just let it happen, hell you even made a  _ jab  _ at Jughead, saying you wouldn’t give the egg back because you’re not a Serpent anymore.” 

 

“So what?” Cheryl chuckled humorlessly. “You think just being submissive to his stupid privileged white ass would have been  _ more  _ productive?” 

 

_ “Privileged?  _ Listen, that really is  _ not  _ the argument we’re having right now. Don’t turn this into something it’s not. You’re mad at Jughead for kicking us out when he had  _ every right  _ to do that. I will admit I’m not particularly happy with him, especially after I all but brought him into this gang, I helped him through fucking  _ everything,  _ but he set rules and we broke them. This was our fault in the end,” Toni shot down harshly.  

 

“We are in a  _ gang  _ Toni! When I joined, I thought we would be doing a little more of that illegal shit, and all of a sudden now we have to act like we’re some stupid after school club?” Cheryl argued, her eyes narrowing at her girlfriend before coming to a hasty stop at a red light she had almost bolted through in her rage. 

 

“We  _ were,  _ in a gang, Cher,” Toni growled. “We’re not fucking in it anymore because you wanted to go through with your little rebellious streak and I was stupid enough to follow.” 

 

Cheryl flinched. 

 

Toni felt guilt swarm in her gut at that, she never meant to hurt her girlfriend like she was right now, but Cheryl needed to hear it. She had been way out of line at the meeting today, fighting a losing battle, acting like she cared  _ nothing  _ for the Serpents. 

 

Like she cared nothing for the people who were Toni’s family. 

 

“I deserved that.”

 

“Oh, baby, you deserved that and more,” Toni scoffed, rolling her eyes, effectively ripping Cheryl’s heart out. “But I think getting kicked from the Serpents is probably punishment enough for you right now. Unlike you, I can actually tell when something’s eating at my girlfriend.”

 

At that, the redhead’s eyes narrowed into slits as she pulled the car to a full stop on the side of the deserted road. 

 

How dare Toni insinuate that Cheryl had  _ no idea  _ of how broken she  _ knew  _ her girlfriend was feeling right now? Couldn’t Toni tell, since she could read Cheryl so  _ fucking  _ perfectly, that she was falling apart on the inside knowing that she had robbed Toni of the only family she had ever known since she was old enough to know what family was? 

 

“You don’t think I’m beating myself up every minute?” Cheryl hissed, finally snapping, the emotions of the evening slipping off her shoulders and trickling into their argument with every passing second. “You can be so incorrigible sometimes Toni, I cannot even begin to tell you how absolutely  _ sorry  _ I am that this is how this turned out. I know the Serpents are your family, way fucking more than I ever could be to you. Did you even stop to think how terrible it makes me feel to know that the girl I  _ love…”  _ Cheryl swallowed harshly, “the girl I  _ love  _ was deprived of her family because of me; because I couldn’t abide by Jughead’s stupid fucking laws and because I wasn’t smart enough to hold my shit together and leave without a trace.”

 

Toni flinched, her eyes only becoming more apologetic as she watched her girlfriend slowly become feral with sadness and anger, but she knew better than to interrupt. She let Cheryl get it out because as mad as she was at her girlfriend for getting them in this situation to begin with, Toni had her own mind, she supported Cheryl of her own volition, she was every bit as accountable for them getting kicked out, if not more. 

 

Before the Serpents became this fucking after school club, this absolute joke of a gang, they used to amount to something of some serious illegal nature. Toni knew quite a bit about what to do and how to do it without getting caught, and if  _ she  _ had been a little bit smarter, if she had reminded Cheryl of the things she knew, they would’ve gotten away scot-free and would have still been in the Serpents tonight. 

 

Cheryl shook her head and looked away from her girlfriend who had seemingly shut down again, spacing out. They couldn’t go on like this, they would fall apart if they could barely even get through one argument without one of them tripping out on their own issues. 

 

“Toni, you either talk to me  or we stay here on the side of the road for the rest of the n-”

 

“I love you,” Toni finally whispered, swallowing a lump. 

 

Cheryl’s eyebrows shot up, her heart leaping ten strides at the sound of her girlfriend’s raspy voice. She had only heard that from Toni a handful of times since they had said it for the first time yesterday, and it never failed to make Cheryl feel light headed. 

 

“I love you and I’m sorry I made you think it’s all your fault. It’s not. I was an active participant, I did those things because I wanted you to be happy, because you’re a part of my life now more than I ever intended for you to be I guess,” Toni admitted, wringing her wrists. 

 

Cheryl’s mouth twisted into a hurt frown. 

 

Toni had never intended for her to become a Serpent?

 

“What is that supposed to mean?”

 

“I mean,” the pink haired girl huffed, running a hand through those locks Cheryl hated to love. “When we first started dating Cheryl, you and I were  _ so…  _ different. Do you remember? The first time I talked to you in the school hallway, you were the HBIC, and I was just another greaser from a biker gang, we literally were from two completely different worlds which were  _ never  _ meant to collide. And they wouldn’t have, had it not been for Jones and the school shut down and all those chain reactions which led to us meeting each other.” 

 

Cheryl bit down on her lower lip and nodded, how could she ever forget? Those first few moments with Toni… Cheryl would have remembered those even if she had never ended up with the ex-Serpent as her girlfriend. 

 

It had been the first time in a long time that Cheryl actively felt attracted towards someone and she wasn’t willing to fight it away. The first time hope  _ didn’t  _ breed eternal misery in her mind. 

 

“When we started dating, Cher, I figured I would have to overcompensate for our differences,” Toni sighed, her hand coming to rest on Cheryl’s thigh, only to quickly be swiped up between Cheryl’s warm palms. The contact calmed her. “I started integrating you in  _ everything,  _ anything we could possibly do together, we did.”

 

“I made you do the Carrie Musical for me,” Cheryl laughed, albeit it being slightly watery. 

 

Toni allowed herself a small smile. 

 

“I made you join the Serpents for  _ me.”  _

 

“I enjoyed that though,” Cheryl pouted. 

 

Toni laughed out loud at that. “And you think I didn’t enjoy putting my hair in braids and wearing an obnoxiously gay rainbow shirt and dancing on stage next to Ethel Muggs?”

 

Cheryl grinned. 

 

“Point is,” Toni gulped, looking down at their joined hands. “We had so much ground to cover in terms of how  _ different  _ we were, no matter how perfect we were-  _ are-  _ for each other, and I did too much too fast. Joining the Vixens for you was one thing, but asking you to join the Serpents for me? I’m sorry Cheryl, I asked so much of you. Especially considering you hated our  _ guts  _ and the only gut in there that you don’t hate is mine.” 

 

Cheryl shook her head, desperately reaching over to grasp Toni’s other hand and pulling the girl fully over the console, leaning so close to each other, minds numb with love. 

 

“You didn’t  _ make  _ me do anything, Toni. It was my choice to join the Serpents, to finally have a family. I wanted to become a part of your family, for you to become my family, but we both forgot that at the end of the day… we’re just kids who are dealing with way more than we ever should have to be,” Cheryl gulped. 

 

She hated admitting it, she despised saying the thing out loud that she feared so much. 

 

Toni was heavily regretting her decision of ever asking Cheryl to join the gang in the first place, and truthfully, it was all Cheryl’s fault. She didn’t know how to act when it came to being selfless, the only person in that gang she would die for was Toni and now they were both kicked out because she forced Toni to make that decision too. 

 

She forced Toni to pick her girlfriend over her family. 

 

“So what are we going to do?” Cheryl sighed, defeated. 

 

“Now,” Toni smiled tightly, sitting back in her seat but clutching Cheryl’s hand still. “We go home, to Thistlehouse, and we sleep. The rest of this is a battle for tomorrow.” 

 

“We’re just gonna go home and sleep? After all that’s happened?”

 

Toni reached over and pulled Cheryl into her, locking their lips in a quick but charged kiss. Tongues and teeth clashed and nipped, but when they pulled away, the heaving was heavy with lust and both girls had some excess anger in need of expelling. 

 

“Well… I was thinking we could do some other things before sleeping.” 

  
  


**xxx.**

 

“Jones!” 

 

Toni crossed her arms over her chest, missing the feeling of leather pulling taut against her back when she did that; but she knew better than to step back on Serpent territory acting like she was still one of them. 

 

Jughead Jones turned around, his brows pulled into a furrow above his eyes and nose, looking as sleep deprived as he ever had. 

 

Toni shivered that she had ever made out with the boy. 

 

A fact that even Cheryl wasn’t aware of yet because Toni was sure her irrational pyromaniac of a love would burn Jughead’s trailer down for that. 

 

“Toni, you’re back,” he breathed out, something akin to relief in his eyes before he worked overtime to cover it up quickly and he looked ten times more tired almost immediately. “Why are you back?” 

 

“I want back in,” Toni shrugged, her arms tightening in offense. 

 

His eyebrow rose minutely. 

 

“And what makes you think you’re in any position to be making that demand?”

 

“Because, she’s a serpent by blood, you dimwitted ten cent Leo DiCap wannabe,” Cheryl scoffed, walking up after Toni, a crunch in the gravel behind her as the redhead stood only inches away from her girlfriend, guarding Toni’s back, loyal as ever. 

 

Jughead rolled his eyes and turned back to the table over which he had been slaving. 

 

“You think teaming up on me is the ideal way to do this?” 

 

“Well we could do it like this,” Cheryl spoke before Toni could get a word in. “Or… I could just kindly point the police in the direction of a certain body… hidden somewhere… gee, I wonder if they could trace it back to someone we know… maybe someone like Betty?” 

 

Jughead stiffened visibly before whipping around with an intensity Cheryl had almost  _ never  _ seen in him before. 

 

“You- you  _ wouldn’t.”  _

 

“Still doubting what I will and won’t do, Forsythe? A stupid move, even for you,” Cheryl chuckled darkly. 

 

“Alright, Cher, that’s enough,” Toni warned, the hair on the back of her neck rising at the thought of this turning into part two of last night. It was almost like Cheryl simply did  _ not  _ know how to handle relationships with other people, with anyone outside of Toni. 

 

Thankfully, Cheryl read the signs and Toni swore she put the fear of god in Cheryl after their little argument last night because the redhead huffed and backed off, something Toni thought she’d never see her girlfriend do. 

 

“Are you both really going to blackmail me into letting you back now?” Jughead laughed in disbelief. “Toni… I really thought you were cooler than this, dude.” 

 

“Don’t  _ dude  _ me, Jughead,” Toni growled. “We’re not friends right now, hell, we’re not even gang mates anymore.”

 

Jughead had the decency to look guilty. 

 

“Toni,” Jughead sighed, ripping his beanie off his head and running his fingers through his greasy hair. “Even if I  _ did  _ consider letting you back in, on what grounds would that be? You broke into Hiram Lodge’s house with Cheryl, they want someone held accountable for that. Veronica even snitched on Cheryl, you think she would let us have the protection if I let you both back in?” 

 

“I don’t want back in, Pendleton,” Cheryl spoke lazily from behind Toni. 

 

“What- you don’t?” he curiously asked, looking from one girlfriend to the other. 

 

“Not that it’s any of your business but we decided it would be best if Cheryl and I… separated our lives a little,” Toni swallowed, turning back to look at her girlfriend who met her with a confident and gleaming smile. 

 

She reached back slightly, feeling pale fingers lace through hers immediately and bring her comfort. 

 

“Are you guys breaking up?” Jughead asked, sounding stupid as ever. 

 

Toni groaned. 

 

Cheryl snapped. 

 

“Does it fucking  _ look  _ like we’re breaking up, Jughead?” 

 

The Serpent boy’s eyes widened as he stepped back and shook his head. 

 

“We’re not breaking up, Jones,” Toni reassured. “But I think we all know that Cheryl wasn’t exactly cut out for the Serpents, what with her only reason for joining being keeping me safe and the fact that Sweet Pea and Fangs seem to enjoy annoying the living shit out of her.” 

 

“And the insubordination-”

 

“Speak another word, Jughead, and you are getting my stilettos stuck in your  _ eyeball-”  _

 

“Guys!” Toni laughed nervously, pulling Cheryl tight against her and keeping a wary eye on Jughead who seemed to be even more on edge with her raucous girlfriend being her impulsive self. “The  _ point _ is that Cheryl doesn’t want to come back. She’s going to shoulder the whole blame by herself, you have no actual evidence against me other than that I love Cheryl and everyone knows I probably assisted her. Especially Veronica. Other than that? Nada. Zilch.” 

 

“So you’re going to let my girlfriend in or I’m going to burn down your trailer,” Cheryl finished with a proud smile. 

 

“She won’t, Jug.”

 

“No I definitely will.”

 

“She might,” Jughead agreed meekly. “But thankfully you won’t have to because Cheryl being out is enough for the Lodges.”

 

“It is?” Toni breathed, her eyes widening. 

 

She had only mildly hoped that maybe her practically threatening and bribing Jughead into letting her back into the gang would work, and yet there she was, Jughead smiling at her softly, like he had back when she had first helped him get into the Serpents, and her jacket calling to her as it sat in the trunk of Cheryl’s Chevy. 

 

Cheryl squeezed her hand beside her and when Toni turned to look at her girlfriend, that fucking  _ look  _ of adoration, of pure love… she was a goner. 

 

She turned to Jughead, ecastatic. 

 

“You’re forreal, Jones? Not fucking with me or anything?”

 

“Why would I be  _ fucking  _ with you about something like that?” Jughead laughed, although practically forcing himself to swear like the goody two shoes he really was. “Welcome back to the Serpents, Toni. Strap that jacket on your back and meet at Sweet Pea’s trailer tomorrow morning, we’ve got work to do for Veronica.”

 

“You bet your not-so-sweet ass I’ll be there bright and early,” Toni grinned, finally fully turning to Cheryl as Jughead shook his head fondly and turned back to the table he was working on. 

 

“I-I’m back in, baby oh my god, I’m a Serpent again,” Toni whispered, feeling her heart piece back together, the glue of finally belonging once more seeping through the cracks. 

 

Cheryl smiled at her  _ so fucking softly  _ before cupping her tanned face in pale hands and bringing their lips together for the singing sweetness of a long awaited kiss. 

 

“I would never let you be away from your family, TT,” Cheryl whispered, pressing another kiss to her girlfriend’s forehead. “You mean so  _ so  _ much to me, and the Serpents always know that I’m here if they need back up. I’ll always support the love of my life’s family.” 

 

“I love you,” Toni breathed out, looking up into her girlfriend’s eyes. 

 

Cheryl rolled them and pressed a hard kiss to Toni’s forehead again. 

 

“Not like that’s the fifteenth time I’ve heard that this morning, love.”

 

Toni gasped, mocking hurt. 

 

“ _ This  _ is how you treat your hot as fuck girlfriend telling you she loves you?” 

 

Cheryl grinned and leaned in. 

 

“You had no problem with how I was treating you this morning when I woke you up with my head between your l- _ ” _

 

“Cheryl! Toni!” Jughead laughed awkwardly, reminding them that he was still there, while scratching the back of his head. “Um, how about you guys pack it up for now, okay? I’ll- uh- see you around Toni. Just please, try not to go at each other in the middle of the trailer park,  _ please.”  _

 

“Ugh, ghoul,” Cheryl groaned, grabbing Toni’s hand and finally leading them away from the firepit in the centre of the park and back towards Cheryl’s car. “No worries, we’ve got school now anyways, where there are plenty of bathrooms to finish what I wanted to start-”

 

“I hate both of you!” Jughead yelled after them, amused. 

 

“The feeling is mutual!” Toni yelled back before grinning up at Cheryl. “And I love  _ you.”  _

 

“I love you too, TT.” 

 

With that, Cheryl pressed Toni against the side of her red car, sweeping the shorter girl into a long and heated kiss. 

 

“Thank you for everything, Cheryl, really,” Toni gasped between kisses, moaning gently. “I didn’t… I didn’t think I would be let back in the Serpents after the stunt we pulled but you made that possible. You make everything possible.” 

 

“I’m not all that, Toni,” Cheryl sighed, reaching up to tuck a pink lock of hair behind Toni’s ear. “But I would slay the whole world and put it on a silver platter for you if you asked that of me.” 

 

Toni giggled. 

 

“Well luckily, I’m not doing that.” 

 

“Mmm, luckily,” Cheryl murmured before dropping her head down and pressing their mouths together again. 

 

And for those few moments, in between the whole world of Riverdale falling apart, caught up in the war between Hiram Lodge and Archie Andrews, Cheryl and Toni stole their few snapshots of perfection. 

 

Of peace. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i gave y'all the scenes the writers never could i stg, we deserved to see cheryl and toni talk about this afterwards because i'm fairly sure it would result in their first fight. also ngl with everything that we've been seeing of cheryl over the last 3 seasons i'm fairly sure the girl has got borderline personality disorder but are we going to see riverdale talk about that either? nope.


End file.
